Beaver Caches

Observation challenge: can you find the beaver in this picture?? We’ve been looking carefully on Raven Lake (pictured) and Sawmill Creek to find beavers and beaver signs. We have found beavers, lodges and dams, trails and canals, and evidence of chewing throughout the summer and fall. But this past week, a new sign of beaver activity appeared for the season: the beaver cache!

Beaver working on its cache on Sawmill Creek a few years ago.

When beavers make a cache they place sticks in the mud outside of their den so when the ice freezes they will have those sticks underwater. The beavers can swim out and grab a branch without even breaking the surface. They’ll eat the bark of those sticks to tide them over through the long winter. We have noticed these beaver caches in Sawmill Creek on Wolf Ridge campus, but no caches yet on Raven Lake – we’ll be looking closely!